Tag: business

  • Why do an MBA?

    Surely that’s a dumb question to be asking myself right now. I had to answer it on the application. I’ve committed the money and time to it. I’ve even started the first course – Accounting and Financial Management. That first course is looking to be as easy as I thought. Which on one level really…

  • Channel Ten finally on Foxtel’s EPG

    Channel Ten Australia has finally signed a deal to allow digital broadcast to Foxtel’s cable and satellite subscribers. Until now channels Ten and Seven has only been available on Foxtel cable as an analogue retransmission. This meant that Foxtel’s digital Electronic Program Guide did not list Ten’s or Seven’s schedule. In the new media world…

  • A&R Scandal: Tower Books’ Michael Rakusin Replies

    Michael Rakusin, Director of Tower Books replied to Charlie Rimmer‘s letter. I’ve emailed a request to reproduce Michael’s email here, but in the meantime you can read it at Susan Wyndham’s Undercover blog. That way the conversation can allow trackbacks around the blogosphere. I look forward to watching the fall-out in the industry over this.…

  • Angus & Robertson Scandal: Demands cash from 40% of suppliers

    Angus & Robertson sent a letter to 40% of their suppliers demanding cash payments and rebates as a condition of continued business. The scandal broke at Susan Wyndham‘s Undercover blog over at the Sydney Morning Herald, firstly in Bookshop chain puts bite on small publishers and then in more detail today A&R Dumps Books. A friend…

  • Risks of serving on a board of directors

    Directoship Risk was a question asked and answered by a LinkedIn connection of mine – the erudite Dr. Earl R. Smith II Executive Director of Longview. Actually Dr Smith covered more than risk, he laid down some Board of Directors – Basic Principles and included great perspectives on Director compensation. He also invited comments on…

  • Acquiring a private company

    I’ve been negotiating the potential acquisition of a private industrial company. All the details are covered by a non-disclosure agreement, so I can’t provide a case study (yet). At this point in time the deal is not going through once we asked the target what their price expectation was. The target has retained the services…

  • Theory of Constraints spelling

    Yeah I misspelled Theory of Constraints in my rush to post earlier. I don’t normally spell it Thoery of Contraints. I thought I’d add another point that I learned from The Goal. In business accounting Inventory is an asset, which normally means it is a good thing. However inventory must be insured, counted, protected and…

  • Theory of Constraints

    I got a question on my mention of Theory of Constraints (TOC) in an earlier post. As my factory production has reached capacity, my most critical goal is to introduce TOC into my production facility. I first heard of the Theory of Constraints in the book The Goal by Eliyahu M. Goldratt and Jeff Cox.…

  • Deal with the Micro Manager

    Deal with the Micro Manager

    A former CEO of mine was a micromanager. I knew this before I took the job as the company was a client for a couple of years. Socially, I like my boss and we’ve know each other for many years. I’d even call us friends. Given my interest in entrepreneurship, I have strong feelings against…

  • Retail KPI’s – the germination

    I’m developing a series of KPI’s for a retail operation. They own nine garden shed outlets and don’t currently track anything. It’s late and I’ve got a pile of notes, but I’ll document the process here. One of the key elements is avoid collecting useless data, and reward the collection of useful data that reinforces…